Jack Randall, the Irishman, whom George Borrow describes as the King of the Light-weights, was a few pounds over the ten stone which is the generally recognised light-weight limit of to-day. He was a frank-faced, open-hearted fellow, a good and chivalrous sportsman, strong-willed, courageous, and by no means a fool. In the year 1818 he was at the height of his fame, but was anxious to fight one or two more battles, before taking the customary tavern and retiring. And a match was accordingly made with Ned Turner to take place on Crawley Downs on December 5th of that year for ￡100 a side. Both in height, weight, and age, the men were evenly matched. The betting was in favour of Randall. Turner’s seconds were Tom Owen and Bill Richmond, the black; Randall’s, Tom Oliver and White.

As so often happened in the days of bare knuckles, the men were a long time making up their minds to begin, and five minutes went by before the first blow was struck. Then as now, boxers realised the prime importance of a good start, of landing, if possible, a terrific and discouraging smasher in the first round. Many fights have been won like that. In this battle the first two rounds occupied twenty minutes. But in the second Randall landed more often and much the harder of the two. They boxed at long range, and each seemed to be mortally afraid of the other, or rather, to respect him. Once a blow was struck by either, his opponent hastened to return it with all speed and due interest. In the third round the spectators and even the men’s seconds became impatient. The round lasted thirteen minutes, and the pauses between bouts of fighting were so protracted that onlookers suggested to Tom Owen that he might light his pipe, 61 whilst Tom Cribb asked for his night-cap and told his neighbours to wake him up when the fighting started again. Each was determined to give the other no unnecessary chance. When they did get going both boxed extremely well. Randall went mainly for the body at first, and Turner drew blood from the Irishman’s mouth and nose. At the end of the sixth round and about an hour from the start, Turner was showing signs of weariness. He lowered his hands whenever Randall was out of reach, and he was bleeding profusely.

They now began to fight hard. Most rounds ended in a throw, at which Randall as a rule showed himself the stronger. In the eleventh round it was seen that Randall was rather the better, though backers were not yet lacking for his opponent. But presently Turner was worked round so that the sun was in his eyes, and Randall put in a terrific hit on the face. Turner replied with a hard right in the stomach. Then Turner scored the more hits in a fierce rally, but these were not hard enough to do a great deal of damage.

The first knock-down blow came from Randall in the thirteenth round. He shot in a hard left which sent Turner’s head back and then immediately repeated it, whereupon Turner fell. He was bleeding a good deal. The Irishman hit less now at the body, finding Turner’s defence for his head easier to break through. In the sixteenth round Turner hit several times but weakly; in the seventeenth, however, he seized Randall and threw him clean out of the ring. But the effort was a costly one: it did little harm to Randall, whilst Turner stood leaning against the r............